Postcards from the road, vol. 2

More from the DOGLAND book tour, plus my weekly shareables: A shelter dog shines, a new book delves into grief, and the northern lights come south

Unpaid endorsement: The Darwin Hotel in Atlanta is wonderful. Old-school R&B on the sound system, display walls of old cassettes, and this John Lewis mural in the lobby.

Before we get to this week’s notes and links, here’s what next week looks like for the DOGLAND book tour:

• Tuesday! Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, in conversation with the brilliant Bronwen Dickey. A $29 ticket gets you a copy of the book and a guaranteed seat; other seats are available but they ask that you RSVP. Tickets and more info here.

• Wednesday! The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines. Free but they ask that you register. More info here.

• Friday! Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston, in conversation with the fantastic Amanda Heckert. Free. More info here.

I have a couple of Charlotte-area dates the week after that, a few more scattered events down the road, and we’re still working on some things that haven’t been finalized yet. If you’re interested in having me come to your bookstore or event, drop a line to our publicist, Rhina Garcia, at rhina.garcia@simonandschuster.com. In the meantime, if you’re in or around Raleigh, Southern Pines or Charleston … come join us!

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I’m sitting here this morning wishing I had driven out in the country somewhere to see the northern lights.

Twitter was a pleasant place for a few hours Friday night, as people from all over the world posted photos of the aurora borealis. A huge solar storm cast the lights all the way down here to parts of the South. I went outside a couple of times to look for them in the Charlotte skies, but no such luck.

My bucket list isn’t very long but the northern lights have always been on it. Sometimes I daydream about flying to Iceland and watching the light show from some remote spot next to a fjord. (Partly so I can, when I tell the story later, say “fjord.”)

We all have these places and things we’d like to see or experience … a lot of them seem out of reach. It was kind of a miracle that the lights themselves reached all the way down to us.

But I also have to say this. When I went outside to look for the lights, what I found was a beautiful night in the city. Even with all the streetlamps, the sky was full of stars. A breeze kissed the trees. I could hear street traffic a few blocks away, but from that distance it was a calm white noise, like waves at low tide. I could hardly imagine a more pleasant place to be.

Sometimes we don’t need extra. Sometimes the miracle is right there in front of us.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. A couple of new DOGLAND-related items this week … I did a segment on the heartbreak of a dog’s death for the Colin McEnroe Show on Connecticut Public Radio. We also put Mike Collins’ interview with me from WFAE’s Charlotte Talks into my SouthBound feed.

2. My other newsletter piece this week was an old story of mine about a charming robber who lived in an abandoned Circuit City. The tale is being made into a Channing Tatum movie.

3. My weekly for WFAE was about the courageous officers who died in a shootout in Charlotte … and how we now have to find some courage, too.

4. I’m not doing regular Dog News segments in this slot now that DOGLAND is out … but many of you sent along this fantastic Sarah Lyall story about a shelter dog who is competing in the agility competition at Westminster. And that’s not even the best part of the story! Wait until you get to the paragraph that begins with the dog’s owner—a self-described animal whisperer—explaining that a client’s tropical fish told her it is not afraid of dying. (NYT)

5. In the interest of equal time, some Cat News: The story of Galena, who climbed into an Amazon return box and wound up 630 miles from home. (WashPost)

6. I just finished a book that knocked me to my knees: Amy Lin’s HERE AFTER. Amy became a young widow after her husband died suddenly while running a half-marathon, and the book is written as a series of short posts wracked with pain—postcards from the edge of oblivion. It doesn’t wrap up in a tidy bow. She doesn’t suddenly find love again. It is raw and real and heartbreaking. I met Amy a few weeks ago at the Zibby Owens retreat in Asheville, and she’s delightful in person. But her book captures grief as well as anything I’ve ever read.

7. I also finished CLETE, the upcoming entry in James Lee Burke’s mystery series featuring Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux. This one stars Clete Purcel, Dave’s loyal and boozy sidekick, who is not above backing a cement mixer up to a bad guy’s front door and dumping a load of concrete in the house. I’m interviewing Burke for SOUTHBOUND in a couple of weeks and can’t wait to talk to him about Dave and Clete.

8. From Ben Collins, who helped rescue The Onion from its private equity vampires, on how the path forward is us: “Save your defunct bowling league, run for one of New Hampshire's 900 State House seats, revive a dogshit museum.” (Axios/Bluesky)

9. RIP Steve Albini, who brought a punk ethos to his gigs as a producer/recording engineer for everybody from Nirvana to the Pixies to PJ Harvey. Cranky, provocative, brilliant. (The Guardian)

10. Here’s one of Albini’s best: The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?” I always want to look over my shoulder when I listen to this song because it sounds like the drummer is right behind me. That’s what a recording pro can do.
    

    Have a great week, everybody.